Choosing a Path

My life so far has consisted of an infinite number of crossroads. I've stood at the intersection of multiple possibilities, equally able to believe each as a reality. This was possible because these crossroads all existed in the future and I was granted with the blessing of opportunity. But I am no longer a child and I can't dream of following every one.

One month ago I returned from an event called Burning Man in the middle of the Black Rock Desert. I found a freedom on that dry, cracked earth, a freedom that I was just realizing was mine to keep. For my entire life the next step has always been obvious, neatly laid out before me. A hundred voices, of my parents, of my peers, of my teachers, and of the world around me, guided me on a single path. I appreciate this guidance. It has given me an education, a desire to learn, and the ability to follow my curiosities (of which I have many). But now I seek only one voice...

My own.

The freedom I found on that dusted ground was the freedom to be myself. The freedom to reach for consciousness of who I am and the reality I am a part of. It is a freedom that I believe is only granted through challenge, through painful separation of everything one has believed, and the willingness to pursue truth no matter the consequences. Only in this abyss, absent of previous prejudices, can the ringing bells that threaten to silence the individual be stilled.

I was born at infinite crossroads, but only one can truly be mine. Many of the possible paths are apparent, well treaded, worn and comfortable by the footprints of others. These are not my mine.

Others are hidden, only to be revealed by fresh steps. I have held on to a saying revealed to me by the cracking of a fortune cookie: "Those who walk in other's tracks leave no footprints." It is these hidden tracks that are mine to take. Maybe there were no infinite crossroads. Maybe there's always been one path, simply waiting for me to step onto it.

I welcome you to join me in this journey, and to see where we can go. I'm not sure what I'll find or where it'll end or if it even will. I only hope that it brings fresh challenges, ones that will define who I am and the person that I have become. Above all though, I hope to face uncertainty and find meaning where there was previously none.

And to guide me is a whisper I once heard on a desert wind...

Do not be afraid.